In known packaging and palletizing facilities, articles, packages, and piece goods are conveyed on transport tracks and shifted or aligned in a manner suitable for producing desired layer patterns, which can be subsequently stacked on pallets
An apparatus is known from EP 1 046 598 A1 for handling packages of containers, such as bottles or tin cans, which are to be arranged by the apparatus in a predetermined configuration for a transport on pallets. The apparatus comprises a station for aligning and separating the packages, where the station has a multitude of parallel diagonal guides, which are each provided with movable gripping elements. Each of the gripping elements picks up a package and aligns it according to a desired arrangement or configuration of the other packages. The packages are fed to the stations in one row or in a plurality of rows by means of a conveyor belt.
DE 603 13 039 T2 also discloses an apparatus and a method for arranging and aligning packages. A method and an apparatus are moreover known from DE 102 19 129 A1 for rotating and distributing or bringing together so-called packs, which are fed in at least one supply lane and discharged in an arrangement rotated by 90 degrees in at least one outlet lane running parallel to the supply lane or to the supply lanes. In this method, in each case at least two packs are seized and rotated as a group, in each case by 90 degrees.
In order to be able to form a stackable article layer, it is generally necessary to have a predefined number of articles, which have to be grouped and pushed together. In addition to the one feeder belt of the grouping station, there is a further feeder belt arranged parallel to the first feeder belt for the purpose of being able to increase the grouping capacity and, directly connected therewith, the palletizing capacity. The grouping station or, as the case may be, its control can preferably be programmed such that articles are shifted and/or rotated and relocated to a predefined position alternately from the first and from the at least one further feeder belt. It is also possible that several such grouping tables are arranged one after the other, with the first grouping table being associated with two feeder belts, for example. In this way, the capacity can be increased once more by one article, for example, from the first feeder belt being positioned by the first grouping table or, as the case may be, by its manipulator, and by a further article from the second feeder belt passing the first grouping table uninterruptedly and being positioned by the second grouping table or, as the case may be, by its manipulator.
In known palletizing facilities and methods for palletizing, packages, piece goods or bundles are fed in rows that are uninterrupted, continuous, or interrupted by gaps by means of one, two or more parallel transport tracks to at least one grouping table with at least one manipulator, where the packages, piece goods or bundles are rotated and shifted by means of the manipulator or, as the case may be, by the manipulators in such a manner that they form a stackable and/or palletizable layer, which is subsequently transferred to a palletizing apparatus for the purpose of stacking and/or forming layers. Such a palletizing apparatus comprises at least one transfer station, which is normally arranged upstream from a loading station and is preferably vertically adjustable in order to be able to deposit in each case individual, complete article layers at a desired height on a stacking location, for example, on a pallet, with the transfer station and the loading station interacting with each other. It is also possible for a plurality of such transfer stations to be arranged one after the other with at least one loading station following. Since each vertical movement of each transfer station requires time, it is not the actual palletizing, but rather the transfer of the article layers from the grouping stations to the proper depositing location and the vertical positioning of said article layers that usually form the limiting factors for the performance of such a machine.
The primary object of the present invention lies in providing a method and an apparatus for palletizing packages, piece goods, bundles, or articles, which method and apparatus have an increased palletizing capacity, that is, they can palletize faster than hitherto known facilities and methods.